Eblis
Eblis is the current ruler of the Hell Dimensions and a major villain in the Funcom MMORPG The Secret World. Essentially the Devil of the setting, he has grown weary of the anima-deprived wastelands of his current domain, and seeks a new kingdom on Earth: to that end, he is staging a major invasion of our dimension across all three initial combat zones in the game, tearing great portals in the fabric of reality and allowing his armies to swarm through. However, his plans of invasion are frequently stymied by the actions of Theodore Wicker, the first human to have entered Hell without first having died. A powerful mage and a political idealist, Wicker is determined to end "The Enemy's" rule and restore Hell to its former glory, even going so far as to start a revolution among the Demon tribes. As such, it is the civil war between Wicker and Eblis that draws the players into the Hell Dimensions - and into Eblis' sights. Basic Description Though his presence is felt throughout the Hell Dimensions, Eblis is not seen in person until the final dungeon of the plot arc: until then, if he appears at all, he only presents himself as a disembodied voice issuing commands to the Oni assassins, or as a distant silhouette exchanging magical blasts with Wicker. However, in the final battle of "Paradise Now" he appears in person atop the power exchange to do battle with the players, allowing him to see him unveiled for the first time. Though essentially humanoid in shape, he towers over the players by several feet; completely bald, apparently eyeless and seemingly without genitals, his body is stark white except for the luminous tattoos imprinted across his face, neck, chest, forearms, hips and shins. Though effectively naked and armed only with a curved sword, he proves himself more than capable of fending off five players at once with unnatural strength and impressive magical powers. While using his powers, six glowing wings manifest at his back, allowing him to fly across the battlefield and bombard players from above. It is these wings that immediately reveal Eblis as one of the angelic Host, though it is unknown why he appears so obviously inhuman in contrast to his counterparts among the Nephilim and the Grigori. Other members of the Host like Samael demonstrate a much more human appearance - or at the very least, possess the ability to make themselves appear human; to date, it is uncertain if Eblis has lost this ability or if he simply chooses not to bother with it. Given his vocal distaste for human beings, the latter may very well be likely. In the few moments of the game where Eblis bothers to speak, he treats his audience with arrogance and contempt, proclaiming his natural superiority to humans and demons alike with every sentence: the latter are treated as little more than slaves and playthings, while the former are dismissed as "apes." Indeed, Eblis takes great delight in using his magic to temporarily strip players of their powers, often sneering "back where you belong, ape" as he does so. When his subordinates fail him, he will gladly torture them in whatever way seems most productive to his plans, at one point transforming the surviving assassin into a monster capable of killing Wicker and the players, delighting in the knowledge that the transformation process will leave the assassin with "a short and painful life." With this attitude in mind, Eblis differs significantly from traditional depictions of the Devil, for rather than being simply the epitome and source of all evil in the universe, he is portrayed as a colonial tyrant, using his superior knowledge and technology to exploit the natives of hell, justifying both their subjugation and the invasion of Earth with supremacist rhetoric, proclaiming the innate inferiority of those he enslaves. History Paradise Lost Much of Eblis' life remains unknown, most of it lost to history in the cataclysms that ended the past Ages of the world. However, what is known is that he was originally one of the Host, the angelic beings who had constructed Earth back in the First Age. During this time, he not only took part in the creation of our world, but also participated in the construction of what was to become the Hell Dimensions: unlike most of the Host, he reportedly indulged in personal "tinkering" in his creations, a major divergence from the more orderly construction projects of his fellow angels. In the beginning, Hell was not the nightmarish wasteland popularized by Dante and other mortal poets, but a realm much more like Earth: a technological paradise where life was allowed to blossom to perfection, the native demons flourished and prospered in their time under the Host. Entities like the Jinn and the Succubi were the butlers and handmaidens to their angelic creators, and the Rakshasa were peaceful trickster-imps living among the hills. There are even suggestions that demons and humans associated freely and amiably for a time, most notably during the Second Age. But their world was little more than an experiment in how to properly manage a reality, and when the Host finally chose to abort that experiment, the Hell Dimensions were doomed to eternal decay. It is unknown exactly when they cast off the unwanted set of dimensions, though it is likely no later than the Second Age; whatever the case, without anima, the lifeblood of universes, Hell swiftly collapsed into ruin. Though they survived this disaster, the natives of the Hell Dimensions found themselves trapped in a reality that had turned against them: though many of them were effectively immortal and many more resilient beyond mortal imagining, even they struggled to survive the nightmare landscape their homeland had become. With so little left to them, it wasn't long before the once-peaceful demon tribes devolved into barbarism: lesser demons were condemned to eternal slavery under the newly-formed warlords, whilst greater demons took to perverting humanity in a desperate attempt to convince their creators that demons were the superior race. All demons thirsted constantly for anima, their only succor in their eternal suffering, and flocked anxiously to any tear in the fabric of their reality, hoping that precious anima might leak through: many took to tempting humans with Faustian bargains, desperately hoping to earn the paltry anima that composed their customers' souls. Even the fabric of their world itself turned vampiric, greedily feeding upon any life-force that spilled into its Dimensions. Meanwhile, the Host found themselves beset by an uprising of their own: the angels had become divided in their decisions on what to do with the world they had created, and this disagreement quickly blossomed into a full-fledged civil war. One faction, the Grigori, wanted to safeguard their creation and allow its inhabitants to live freely, whilst the rebellious Nephilim believed they should exploit the powers of Gaia for their own ambitions. Eblis was one of the latter, freely proclaiming the superiority of the Host over the "apes" that they had created - superiority he still proclaims countless eons after his defeat. Little is known about the Host's civil war, but It is likely that Eblis was one of the ringleaders of the Nephilim, for when the war finally ended in a cataclysm that brought an end to the First Age, he was eventually captured and sentenced above all others - likely during the events of the Second Age, well after Hell had fallen into disrepair. Where other Nephilim fled from justice and concealed themselves on Earth, their lone comrade fell from grace and was cast into the depths of the Hell Dimensions. Better to Reign in Hell... Eblis found himself condemned to a bitter eternity in the ruins of his former creation, among those who had willingly served his former colleagues. By now, Hell had been almost consumed by entropy, leaving it in the form popularized by the Divine Comedy and other works: oceans of petroleum, petrified forests, sulfuric deserts, flesh-shredding storms, vast stretches of barren cliffs and mountains, countless lava flows, and monolithic banks of corroding machinery - left to decay following the cataclysms that had consumed the long-forgotten experiment, the demons unable to understand or salvage these ruined devices. Even time had not escaped the effects of entropy unscathed, for within the Hell Dimensions, decades warped and distended into millennia while the years on Earth rushed by in a torrent. However, for all the terrible power entropy held over the Hell Dimensions, Eblis was capable of exerting powers of his own: he still had his strength, his magic, and his knowledge of the technology that had governed this place. Gathering an army of followers through fear and awe, he set out to seize control of Hell from the warlords that dominated it: after a long and bloody campaign that led him across the length and breadth of the wasteland, he emerged as the sole ruler of Hell, crowned Eblis Dominus Inferni in Profondis. Eblis did not rest on his laurels for long, eventually deciding to find a way of expanding his dominion to the world which the Host had once fought over: Earth was still out there, rich with self-replenishing anima and ripe for the taking - if only he could reach it. Nationalizing efforts to harvest anima and coordinating the restoration of the monumental machines dotting the landscape, he set out to exploit any means of reaching Earth that presented themselves. Thousands of Rakshasa slaves marched to his commands, long since reduced to lobotomized eunuchs under the torturous regimens that Eblis had approved, and the upper echelons of Hellspawn rushed to serve his every whim - lest they suffer a similar fate. Doubly unfortunately, with the Hell Dimensions so distanced from Earth, it was effectively exempt from the apocalyptic disasters that ended each Age, and there was nothing to stop Eblis' army building to nightmarish proportions. As eons went by and the Fourth Age finally began, Eblis also took to recruiting the inhabitants of Earth that the Hell Dimensions had ensnared: from unwary customers ensnared in Faustian bargains to damned souls drawn from those who had sinned grievously in life, the spirits of the wicked dead slowly joined the ranks of demonkind. In particular, Cassius, Brutus and Judas Iscariot were selected to serve as members of the elite Hadean Guard, slowly and painfully reforged into Eblis' monstrous bodyguards. Long Live The Revolution During the 1980s, a powerful young magician by the name of Theodore Wicker developed an unhealthy fascination with the Hell Dimensions. An Oxford-educated demonologist and the Age's foremost master of portal magic, the English sorcerer had been studying the records of interactions between Hell for several years and firmly believed that demonkind was not the irredeemable menace portrayed by the Templars and popular media. Though his skills were greedily sought after by both Templars and Illuminati alike, Wicker had other plans: having made contact with a succubus by the name of Saccharissa, he had conceived of an impossible plan to enter Hell without first having died. Over the course of the next few months, he altered his body to withstand the toxic environments of the Hell Dimensions, cutting out his tongue in order to speak the demonic languages, even tore out his heart to conclude his ritualistic sacrifices; somehow, he even made himself immortal - cementing his status as truly inhuman. With his preparations complete, he journeyed to Solomon Island, secured a room at the Overlook Motel, and conducted the final ceremony - transporting himself to Hell and unwittingly taking quite a few of the guests with him. Upon arriving, Wicker began the next stage of his plan: he believed that demonkind could be redeemed and the Hell Dimensions restored to their former glory, and to that end, he chose to inspire the natives to join him. Preaching at length to the demon tribes, he slowly but surely gathered an army of followers - an army that soon threatened to sweep Hell into a revolution. Eblis, needless to say, took a very dim view of the situation. As soon as he had discerned Wicker's presence in Hell, he sent out his armies to eliminate the human and his revolutionaries; for a time, the sorcerer was able to elude the hunters, but he couldn't run forever, and his insistence on finding a diplomatic solution only gave the Enemy's army the opportunity to ambush him, eventually capturing him in 2012. It was at that point that Eblis found himself with a rare and precious opportunity: instead of killing Wicker, he strapped him into one of the long-defunct machine-monoliths, harnessing the sorcerer's gifts of portal magic to open a gateway to Earth. As his soldiers swarmed through the portal to claim fresh territory, Eblis assigned a Machine Tyrant to guard Wicker and harvest fresh anima from the portal: a monstrous amalgamation of tormented Rakshasa, the Machine Tyrant had been built exclusively for war - and it was a war that Eblis was now fully prepared to wage. Fortunately, the portal led back to Solomon Island, by now shrouded in impassible Fog and infested with other monsters: the invaders could not leave for the mainland, nor could they reach the human inhabitants of the island - if only because the Draug hordes occupying the nearby beaches didn't tolerate a rival invasion force. Equally fortunately, the Hellish phenomena manifesting around the long-abandoned Overlook Motel quickly drew attention - eventually inspiring the players to venture through the open portal and into Hell. Paradise Now Upon entering Hell Raised, players find themselves guided across the wasteland by the voice of Saccharissa, leading them through Eblis's army and eventually pitting them against the Machine Tyrant. After the monster has been slain, Wicker is able to extract himself from his restraints and begin shutting down the portals to Earth, promising that humanity will not be endangered any further - but also promising to return Hell to its former glory. However, during the players' visit to Egypt, another portal opens in the City of the Sun God: Eblis has taken advantage of the weakening fabric of reality around the Black Pharaoh's tomb to stage another invasion. Though the City is populated only by ghouls, Filth-infectees and the members of the Cult of the Aten, another potentially apocalyptic threat cannot be tolerated; so, players once again venture into Hell. This time, Wicker's supporters have mobilized into a full-fledged army and are fighting Eblis for control over Hell - at least until the fallen angel is forced to capitulate. However, the armies of Hell have been able to temporarily outmaneuver the revolutionaries: Wicker is cornered at the top of a tower that Eblis' forces have besieged. It is up to the players to fight their way through the army attempt to break through the doors and save Wicker once again, this time with the revolutionary leader providing telepathic advice from afar. However, once players defeat the last of the siege engines and make their way inside the tower, Oni assassins begin to materialize throughout the building, swarming the players - while the voice of Eblis echoes from above, ordering them to bring him Wicker's head. Once the hit-squad has been reduced to one, Eblis works powerful magic upon the remaining assassin, transforming him into a monstrous creature more than capable of defeating the players and eliminating Wicker - or so he believes. With the transformed assassin kept preoccupied by the players, Eblis appears above the tower to do battle with Wicker: at first, the battle appears skewed in the fallen angel's favor, as Eblis possesses magic and technology not seen since the end of the First Age, not to mention his own intrinsic strengths as a member of the Host; however, Wicker is still the foremost practitioner of portal magic the Fourth Age has ever seen, and the millennia spent in Hell's distended timezone has allowed him more than enough opportunities to hone his other magical abilities. To the Enemy's disbelief, the human sorcerer is able to match his strength in a cataclysmic display of thaumaturgical power, holding the stalemate long enough for the players to eliminate the remaining assassin. Enraged and humiliated, Eblis is forced to retreat. In the final mission of the Hell Dimensions plot arc, players find another invasion attempt occurring in Transylvania, specifically around another weak spot in reality - likely caused by the Red Hand's ill-advised experiments in the area. Venturing through, players find themselves in Sheol, Eblis' capital: Wicker's supporters have the Enemy on the run, having forced him to retreat to his citadel at the heart of the city for the final battle. After a long and grueling battle through the streets of Sheol, players finally catch up with Eblis at the top of a power station; with Wicker delayed, they are forced to do battle with the fallen angel on their own. Though he makes use of almost every single spell and technique at his disposal, even temporarily depriving player characters of their powers, Eblis Dominus Inferni in Profondis is finally slain, bringing an end to his rule over the Hell Dimensions. Trivia *In keeping with the notion that every religion and belief is true in the Secret World, Eblis' name is derived from Iblis , one of the names of The Devil in Islam. *Eblis's title "Dominus Inferni in Profondis" means Master of Hell/Master of the Deep Pit. Category:Tyrants Category:Paranormal Category:Satan Category:The Secret World Villains Category:Dark Fantasy Villains Category:Video Game Villains Category:Arrogant Category:Failure-Intolerant Category:Supremacists Category:Torturer Category:Mutilators Category:Warlords Category:Misanthropes Category:Kidnapper Category:Humanoid Category:Inmates Category:Deceased Category:Dark Messiah Category:Harbinger for Rebirth